This Is Horror

TOD 040 Black Women in Speculative Fiction Panel from BlacktastiCon 2018

In this podcast The Outer Dark presents the ‘Black Women in Speculative Fiction’ panel from Blacktasticon 2018 featuring Sheree Renée Thomas, Valjeanne Jeffers, Kenesha Williams, Linda D Addison, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Violette L. Meier, Susana Morris, Letitia Carelock, and Christine Taylor-Butler, plus an exclusive interview and special presentation with Linda D. Addison and The Outer Dark Symposium 2019 update. The panel and presentation were recorded live at Georgia Tech Student Center in Atlanta, Ga., on Saturday June 16, 2018.

The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird is a unique immersive one-day event featuring more than 40 program participants and approximately 16 hours of panels, readings, signings and social activities centered around contemporary Weird and speculative fiction. The third annual event will be held March 22-23, 2019 at Silver Scream FX Lab  and Hotel Indigo-College Park in Atlanta, GA. Limited to 75 attendees. Buy your memberships here.

Intro: The Outer Dark Symposium 2019 Update & Special Guest Linda D. Addison

Scott and Anya update listeners on the latest news about The Outer Dark Symposium 2019  (00:05:20) Then author/poet Linda D. Addison joins us to introduce the panel, share the ‘mind-blowing’ experience of attending and being a guest of honor at Blacktasticon 2018, the importance of mentoring and building community, Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, editing the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Sycorax’s Daughters anthology, and more.

Show Notes

(00:21:28) The Outer Dark presents the ‘Black Women in Speculative Fiction’ panel from Blacktasticon 2018 featuring Sheree Renée Thomas, Valjeanne Jeffers, Kenesha Williams, Linda D Addison, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Violette L. Meier, Susana Morris, Letitia Carelock, and Christine Taylor-Butler. The panelists introduce themselves and their work, and then discuss why black women’s representation matters in speculative fiction including both prose and film, breaking through gatekeepers in publishing and other media, signs of resistance and change in creating space for other voices,  hope through independent publishing, transitions in mainstream editing and publishing, the importance of the storytellers being black, diversity and allies in the science fiction and horror communities, the need for better representation of black female leads and characters  in SF/F/H media, signs of progress, supportive networks, the importance of distribution, and what’s next for black women in speculative fiction and these authors in particular including getting your foot in the door and holding it open for the next author.

(01:38:36) The panel is followed by a one-on-one special presentation/Q&A with Linda D. Addison, who was a BlacktastiCon guest of honor. It’s all the awesome that is Linda, talking about how her career began 45 years ago, hurdles she had to overcome, her quest to get published in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, lessons learned from Nancy Kress, going to cons and discovering Tananarive Due,  how the Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction in the African Diaspora anthology ‘changed everything’ for her,  more milestones in anthologies featuring black authors, her response to pushback on these collections, the birth of BlackSci-Fi.com, her passion to bring ‘self-growth in the black community’ into the outer world, why Sycorax’s Daughters was a milestone,  her commitment to mentoring young writers, her own mentor Jack Ketchum,  a frank discussion of how happy she is to no longer be a ‘black unicorn’ on the Stoker Awards ballot and in the horror community, and the essential need for diverse voices on editorial staffs.

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Additional Links

TOD 005 Black Women in Spec-Lit and Horror: Two Panels from the 1st State of Black Science Fiction Convention

TOD 007 Big Black Beautiful Roundtable: A Panel from the State of Black Science Fiction Convention 2016

Black Girl Magic Lit Mag

Nnedi Okorafor

The Twisted Book of Shadows

HBO and George R.R. Martin Set to Produce Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death TV series (io9)

How Solo Treated Its One Black Character as a Prop for Two White Men (Bustle)

Ilona Andrews

New Suns series (The Ohio State University Press)

Stokercon 2019 (HWA) (May 9-12, 2019)

Boskone 56 (Feb 15-17, 2019)

Move Books

Black Magic Women: Terrifying Tales By Scary Sisters, edited by Sumiko Saulson (Mocha Memoirs Press)

Stephen Barnes

Charles R. Saunders

Dark Dreams: A Collection of Horror and Suspense by Black Writers edited by Brandon Massey

Dark Thirst edited by Angela Adams

Shared Worlds Camp

Show Credits

Host/Executive Producer: Scott Nicolay

Co-Host, News From the Weird: Justin Steele

Producer/Show Notes: Anya Martin

Logo Design: Nick “The Hat” Gucker

Music: Michael Griffin